Prosecutors release 2016 hotel video of Sean Combs assaulting Cassie
The U.S. District Attorney’s office released the hotel surveillance video from 2016 showing Sean Combs physically assaulting then-girlfriend Cassie.
Editor’s note: This story contains graphic descriptions and video that some readers may find disturbing.
Amid Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex-crimes trial, prosecutors have released the full version of a 2016 surveillance video showing the mogul physically assaulting then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura Fine.
The video was first made public by CNN in May 2024 after Ventura Fine detailed the incident in her November 2023 lawsuit against Combs, which was settled a day later. In the now-widely circulated clips, Diddy is seen kicking, hitting and dragging Cassie at a Los Angeles luxury hotel on March 5, 2016. The video has not been seen in its entirety until now.
The jury saw the full video at different times in court this week ahead of and during Cassie’s testimony about the violent incident, among others.
See the full video, edited to include the five camera angles presented in court, below.
Prosecutors release 2016 hotel video of Sean Combs assaulting Cassie
Prosecutors have released the hotel surveillance video from 2016 showing Sean Combs physically assaulting then-girlfriend Cassie. This is the full video, edited to include the five camera angles presented in court.
Combs’ defense team has called into question the CNN version of the video, claiming the surveillance footage had been altered.
In a joint letter to Judge Arun Subramanian from Combs’ defense team and prosecutors in March, Combs’ lawyers said they subpoenaed the news network, claiming “a forensic video analysis of the CNN footage” showed it was “substantially altered in significant respects,” including being sped up “to make it falsely appear that the actions in the video are taking place faster than they are.”
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They alleged “CNN purchased the only known copy of the Hotel’s surveillance footage, uploaded that footage into a free editing software, altered the video; and then destroyed the original footage.”
The defense tried to have the video excluded from evidence, but to no avail.
Combs’ inner circle gave one of the security guards a bag of $100,000 in cash for the video to prevent its release, Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson said during opening statements for the trial.
In response, the defense team argued that Combs was “not trying to obstruct justice” but rather to protect both him and Cassie from “bad publicity.”
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Contributing: KiMi Robinson, Patrick Ryan and Aysha Bagchi
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